On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 20:01:30 +0900, Raj Feridun
<rferid@NOSPAMyahoo.co.jp> wrote:

>On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 09:11:20 GMT, murchadh@shaw.ca (Murchadh) wrote:
>And it has just been
>>announced that British Columbia has the highest cancer cure rates in
>>the world; a record I'm proud to have contributed to.
>
>First of all congratulations on your recovery. That is awesome.

I'm sprry, I phrased that extremely badly - I didn't have cancer; my
wife did and in fact it was detected too late to save her. However, I
subsequently raised money to purchase pocket-sized chemo-therapy pumps
for patients so they could go to work and live normally while
receiving measured does of chemo instead of having to spend all day
having a week's supply blasted into their systems and then in too many
case spending days at home recivering from the chemocal onmslaught.
Most cancer patients are broke for obvious reasons and being able to
go to work is a huge benefit, both financially and for the morale.

>Canada is a lovely country which I have enjoyed every time I've had
>the privilege to visit.
>
>>I'm also proud of Canada for treating its natives as human beings and
>>handing back their land and right to self-rule, which by the way is
>>working out pretty well. I was lucky, I was able to choose the country
>
>I also feel lucky that even though I didn't get to choose my
>nationality I was born in what I consider the greatest country on
>Earth.

I feel the same way about my country, Scotland. I'm very [proud of
what we gave the world in terms of inventions out of all proportion to
our tiny numbers as a people and also our philosophy of commonsense
and protecting all our citizens, parts of which still form a large
part of the American ethos and are essentially the basis on which
Canada is run. 
>
>>I emigrated to and chose Canada above all the others, including the US
>>which I think is a lovely country with some fabulous people, but under
>>all the perfect smiles, is essentially a police state where personal
>>freedom is much more limited than in Canada.
>
>Speaking of 1973 have you ever heard or read a transcript of Canadian
>syndicated broadcaster, Gordon Sinclair's famous "The Americans"
>broadcast from Toronto?
>
>It is amazing how it still stands up so well today, 31 years later and
>20 years after Mr. Sinclair's passing.
>
>http://www.skfriends.com/tribute-usa.htm#The%20Americans
>
>Raj

I have no quarrel with Mr. Sinclair's panegyric and have often
repeated parts of it to those denigrating the US. 

I am sure that you and I have no quarrel and I find myself comfortable
with the more liberal elements of your society, although I do have a
strong distaste for the extreme right and left wing in US politics. 



Murchadh.